Communication between the telephone network and the telephone equipment in a home is commonly provided by a telephone lead-in connection comprising (a) a service wire extending to the home from a telephone feeder cable carried by poles or buried underground, (b) a connector block coupling the conductors of the service wire to appropriate conductors of the cable, (c) inside wiring extending in the home from the telephone equipment therein to the near end of the service wire, (d) a component having terminals for connecting the conductors of the service wire to the conductors of the inside wiring and (e) a box-like enclosure (commonly known as a "service closure") which contains such component and its terminals, and which is mounted inside or outside the home on a support structure, the service closure having a cover permitting access to its interior. The mentioned component may be either a connector block or a protector, i.e., a device adapted not only to make the connections between the service wire and the inside wiring but, also, to protect the telephone equipment in the home from excessive current in the feeder cable by shunting the excess current to ground. A protector is installed in the service closure when there is no protector device installed at the feeder cable for performing such current limiting function.
In the case of a conventional home, the mounting of the service closure usually can be done with little or no difficulty by drilling holes in the home's wooden siding or other wooden part of the home's structure, and by fastening the closure to that siding or part by passing screws or bolts into such holes.
In the case, however, of a mobile home, a number of problems have been encountered in providing a suitable mounting of the service closure. One such problem is that the walls of the living compartment of the home are usually provided by a sheet metal exterior backed by spaced narrow-width wooden studs which are in turn covered on the inside by sheets of plaster board or the like. With such construction of the living compartment walls the installer of the service closure has the choice of fastening the closure solely to the sheet metal by sheet metal screws which often do not provide a reliable mounting or, alternatively, fastening the closure to the studs which, however, are concealed and, thus, difficult to find. Further, in either case in drilling the holes, the installer runs a substantial risk of inadvertently drilling into a utility fixture contained in the wall such as, for example, an electrical power cable or a plumbing fixture.
As another such problem encountered heretofore in the mounting of service closures for mobile homes, the closure is preferably mounted low-down to minimize the length of exposed service wire running between the closure and a pedestal upstanding from the ground from which the service wire exits, and through which that wire is connected to a buried telephone feeder cable. When, however, the closure is so mounted low-down on the outside of the home, it often is later covered by a skirting placed around the lower part of the home so that the closure becomes difficult to locate and access if it is necessary to service the connections made within the closure.